Anthony Shadid, who saw the rise of the Sadrists in 2003-4 clearer than anyone, has a great piece about their political return in Iraq’s parliamentary election. Shadid reports that the Sadrists will win “more than 40 seats,” a figure even Sadr’s Shiite rivals concede is true, thereby tipping the balance of the Shiite coalition in [...]

Hakim al-Zamili was Moqtada Sadr’s man in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, and contemporaneous reporting indicated he ran it like a butcher shop, targeting Sunnis for disappearance and murder. An Iraqi court failed to convict him. Now he’s running for parliament. Sunnis who joined the Baath Party for simple professional reasons during the Saddam era, [...]